To stand sentinel is to trace a line, to watch, to listen, to bear witness. It is to hold one’s ground between what has passed and what is yet to come. Sentinels brings together a selection of contemporary artists, each with a practice that safeguards memory, distils the present, and signals possible futures. Their works serve as watchtowers, pillars, and points of connection, each voice distinct yet united by the shared act of holding space in a shifting world.
Some trace lines back through ancestry, gesture, and ritual; others inscribe them into stone, pigment, or clay. Still others carry a line forward towards light, sound, or the fleeting shimmer of perception. Together, these practices remind us that to hold the present is always to draw between past and future, absence and presence, fragility and endurance.
With works by Astrid Salomon, Briana McKeogh, Chuanda Tan, Daniel O’Toole, James Ettelson, Luke Crouch, Ngarra Kulin, Ria Green, and Sophie Crichton, Sentinels brings together a diverse constellation of contemporary voices. Spanning painting, sculpture, ceramics, installation, and sound, each artist offers a distinct perspective on how we navigate memory, place, and perception - together creating a layered dialogue on what it means to stand watch in our time.
